Creating A Personal Value System to Guide Your Decisions

Knowing your value system or better still defining it gives you tremendous focus and clarity. The clarity you gain brings consistency in your decision-making process and clarity in your actions. Discovering your values helps in improving your outcomes in the different areas of your life that matter to you the most.

Values are simply priorities that order how you spend your time in the here and now. Priorities in life are important for two main reasons:

Time is a limited resource. You cannot renew and once you spend it, you can’t recover.

A tendency of incontinency in our investment of energy and time.

To create your value system step by step, follow the tips discussed below.

Interrogate Yourself

What is truly important to you at this moment in life. Don’t baggage yourself with a long list of values that you want to stick to for the whole of your life. Chances are, they may change. Think about values such as health, love, wealth, comfort, success, security, adventure, and learning.

“A highly developed values system is like a compass. It serves as a guide to point you in the right direction when you are lost.”― Idowu Koyenikan

Create a Value Hierarchy

Order your values from the most important to you to the least. Ask yourself the values that given a chance you would love to satisfy first.

If you come to a point and you feel stuck, create a scenario where you are told to choose between two values and decide which one goes and which remains.

Imagine the Experience

Once you are done with that, look at the top 3 closely and think about the life experience that can be created by a person that lives them. Ask yourself again if the life these values portray is the one you want to live right now.

Assuming the top 3 values are love, peace, and intimacy while values such as wealth and success come in fourth and fifth, there is a high likelihood that your career success will never get ahead of your family.

If on the other hand, the hierarchy starts with wealth and success, then chances are you are more into working and saving than social relationships.

Live the Values

This is the final point in putting together your value system. Of the values you have listed, prioritized, and imagined their experience, how many are part of your current life? This is a reality check and you shouldn’t be afraid to take it because it will put you on a course towards your true values.